While DICE is mostly known as the studio behind EA’s Battlefield franchise, the Swedish studio has also developed games such as Star Wars Battlefront, and the Mirror’s Edge franchise, which is something not connected to multiplayer shooters at all. Given Battlefield 2042 didn’t exactly swing it out of the park for EA and DICE, could the studio be jumping ship and work on another property?
Apparently that’s not the case. Speaking in an interview, the new head of EA DICE Rebecka Coutaz mentioned that the studio is “only focusing” on Battlefield 2042, and that there is no time for anything else.
We are only focusing on Battlefield 2042. There is no time for anything else and this is what we want to do. In three years, we want to be the first-person shooter powerhouse that DICE deserves to be, and that is what we’re going for. – Rebecka Coutaz, DICE General Manager
When asked whether the studio considered moving on from Battlefield 2042 given the negative reaction, Coutaz states that they owe it to the Battlefield players to make BF2042 right, and says that the disappointment from the shooter was “really hard” on the studio.
The launch of Battlefield 2042 was not as expected. Our players and community were disappointed, but so was our development team. We have focused on the health of the game, and so bug after bug, patch after patch, we are fixing and improving it. And each patch we have a little, little win, and that is important for our team because they were disappointed. We’re celebrating 30 years as a studio but also 20 years on Battlefield, and we have players who’ve been with us for 20 years and to disappoint them… it’s really hard on us.
So we want to improve the core gameplay experience and that is what we have focused on. And now, as you might know, we just released season one, and we have good feedback. The players are enjoying our map and the content that we have provided, so it’s a win for us and it makes us feel better. The team is here to make Battlefield, and they’re passionate about Battlefield. We have many Battlefield veterans. So it’s important for us to improve Battlefield 2042 and the experience that we can provide to our players. We owe them that. – Rebecka Coutaz, DICE General Manager
You can check out the full interview with Coutaz by GamesIndustry here.
While some players might have dismissed it right away, Season 1: Zero Hour is indeed a step in the right direction, which is something we’ve noted in our in-depth review.
Can DICE turn things around for BF2042? Maybe, maybe not, but at least they are trying. And hopefully, whatever it is they learned from this, they can apply to the next Battlefield game.